The cast list for “An Unfinished Life,” which is out on DVD on April 11, has to get your attention. There are heavyweights Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman, former media sensation Jennifer Lopez, and even a bear. Oh my!

So why didn’t this earnest tale of redemption in the wide-open Wyoming mountains attract more buzz?

Miramax

You can tell Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman are serious about this movie. They don’t even shave.

The reason is probably the plot, which chugs along on rails, with nary an unexpected twist or turn. This is a perfectly serviceable rainy night video, a cockle-warmer and heart-string tugger, that builds up to one of those warm and fuzzy conclusions that is almost guaranteed to create lumps in the throat.

If only we hadn’t seen it so often before.

For starters, this is a Redford vehicle. You can tell that because he doesn’t shave. Until further notice this is officially the scruffiest Robert Redford has ever looked on screen. His character, rancher Einar Gilkyson, is grumpy, damaged, and angry. Only the persistent efforts of a sweet, but tough, young girl can pull him out of his funk. That and a grizzly bear.

A tough old guy, played by a movie icon, redeemed by a determined young girl? Where have we seen this before? This could have been called “Million Dollar Bear.”

Freeman plays, well, Morgan Freeman. At this point there’s really no use in naming his character. He’s the same wise sidekick — cantankerous, philosophical, and nearing the end of the road &mdash he played to Clint Eastwood’s boxing guru in “Baby.”

Freeman’s character has been mauled by the bear, and there’s some attempt to make something spiritual of the relationship between the man and the grizzly, but people talking to bears almost always end up in the same way. The people talk, the bear never changes expression, and the music swells to provide the emotion.

Lopez is now the beneficiary of lowered expectations. She was so over-exposed in the days when She and Ben Affleck were the toast of the tabloids that it is easy to forget that she has real star power. She plays a battered wife and mother who leaves home with a shiner and heads back to her father-in-law’s ranch because she has no where else to turn.

But he blames her for the death of his son, her late husband. Complications ensue.

Becca Gardner, as Lopez’s daughter, does a nice turn as the granddaughter Redford’s character never knew. She’s tough, but vulnerable, and persists in trying to break through his shell, although he rebuffs her repeatedly and gruffly. Their by-play is cute but there’s not a person watching who doesn’t think she’ll succeed.

None of it rings very true, especially when Redford’s skinny, old rancher kicks the bejeepers out of some cocky bullies (not once but twice). But you knew he’d come through. This is that kind of movie. Rent it, enjoy it, and try not to think of Hilary Swank.